Katherine Lucy Yates

University of Salford · Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre (EERC)

Oceans, particularly coastal areas, are getting busier and within this increasingly human-dominated seascape, marine biodiversity continues to decline. Attempts to maintain and restore marine biodiversity are becoming more spatial, principally through the designation of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs compete for space with other uses, and the...

Predictive models are central to many scientific disciplines and vital for informing management in a rapidly changing world. However, limited understanding of the accuracy and precision of models transferred to novel conditions (their ‘transferability’) undermines confidence in their predictions. Here, 50 experts identified priority knowledge gaps...

Within an increasingly busy seascape competition between different uses of marine resources is growing. Offshore energy generation in particular is expanding rapidly, with implications for both existing user and nature conservation. Marine spatial planning is seen as the primary tool for mitigating conflicts and optimising resources allocation. Wit...

Spatial management tools, such as marine spatial planning and marine protected areas, are playing an increasingly important role in attempts to improve marine management and accommodate conflicting needs. Robust data are needed to inform decisions among different planning options, and early inclusion of stakeholder involvement is widely regarded as...

Vegetation cover on coastal sand dunes has been increasing worldwide since at least the 1940s. Analysis of aerial and satellite imagery has been the principal source used to measure this change, however no studies have systematically evaluated the accuracy of remotely sensed estimates. Using established land cover classification methods and in-situ...

The field of distributional ecology has seen considerable recent attention, particularly surrounding the theory, protocols, and tools for Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) or Species Distribution Modeling (SDM). Such analyses have grown steadily over the past two decades—including a maturation of relevant theory and key concepts—but methodological co...

The European Union (EU) has committed to an ambitious biodiversity recovery plan in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Green Deal. These policies aim to halt biodiversity loss and move towards sustainable development, focusing on restoring degraded habitats, extending the network of protected areas (PAs), and improving the effectiveness of...

Background Anthropogenic degradation of marine ecosystems is widely accepted as a major social-ecological problem. The growing urgency to manage marine ecosystems more effectively has led to increasing application of spatial management measures (marine protected areas [MPAs], sectoral [e.g. fishery] closures and marine spatial planning [marine plan...

On 22 December 2019, the world of fisheries science and whale conservation lost one of its most ardent champions with the passing of Sidney J. Holt. His career began in 1947 at the age of 21. Ten years later, he and his colleague Ray Beverton published their authoritative monograph on quantitative fish population dynamics. In 1953, he joined the Fi...

Seascape ecology, the marine-centric counterpart to landscape ecology, is rapidly emerging as an interdisciplinary and spatially explicit ecological science with relevance to marine management, biodiversity conservation and restoration. While important progress in this field has been made in the past decade, there has been no coherent prioritisatio...

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has rapidly become the most widely used integrated, place-based management approach in the marine environment. Monitoring and evaluation of MSP is key to inform best practices, adaptive management and plan iteration. While standardised evaluation frameworks cannot be readily applied, accounting for evaluation essential...

Species distribution models (SDMs) constitute the most common class of models across ecology, evolution and conservation. The advent of ready‐to‐use software packages and increasing availability of digital geoinformation have considerably assisted the application of SDMs in the past decade, greatly enabling their broader use for informing conservat...

Like most ocean regions today, the European and contiguous seas experience cumulative impacts from local human activities and global pressures. They are largely in poor environmental condition with deteriorating trends. Despite several success stories, European policies for marine conservation fall short of being effective. Acknowledging the challe...

Marine and coastal environments provide extensive and essential ecosystem services upon which much of humanity relies, yet the incorporation of human dimensions into marine and coastal policy and management has historically been lacking. As efforts to address the substantial and diverse challenges facing marine and coastal environments continue, re...

Species distribution models (SDMs) constitute the most common class of models across ecology, evolution and conservation. The advent of ready-to-use software packages and increasing availability of digital geoinformation have considerably assisted the application of SDMs in the past decade, greatly enabling their broader use for informing conservat...

Coastal dunes are dynamic landforms whose morphology is governed primarily by climate and vegetation dynamics. Over the last 50 years, coastal sand dunes across the globe have dramatically 'greened' and wind speeds fallen (Pye et al., 2014; Delgado-Fernandez et al., 2019; Jackson et al., 2019), reducing aeolian transport of sediment and minimising...

Background Anthropogenic degradation of marine ecosystems is widely accepted as a major social-ecological problem. The growing urgency to better manage marine ecosystems has led to the increasing application of ‘spatial management measures’ including marine protected areas, sectoral (e.g. fishery) closures, and marine spatial planning. However, the...

Model transferability is an emerging and important branch of predictive science that has grown primarily from a need to produce ecological forecasts in the face of widespread data deficiency and escalating environmental novelty. In our recent article in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, we outlined some of the major roadblocks that currently undermi...

Model transferability is an emerging and important branch of predictive science that has grown primarily from a need to produce ecological forecasts in the face of widespread data deficiency and escalating environmental novelty. In our recent article in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, we outlined some of the major roadblocks that currently under-...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly deployed spatial management tool. MPAs are primarily designed for biodiversity conservation, with their success commonly measured using a narrow suite of ecological indicators. However, for MPAs to achieve their biodiversity conservation goals they require community support, which is dependent on wi...

Effective stakeholder participation is increasingly seen as an essential part of improving marine and coastal management. Coastal partnerships are a well-established informal method for enabling stakeholder participation in coastal management. However, how well they perform this role has been little explored. The North West Coastal Forum is a UK re...

Terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems are connected via multiple biophysical and ecological processes. Identifying and quantifying links among ecosystems is necessary for the uptake of integrated conservation actions across realms. Such actions are particularly important for species using habitats in more than one realm during their daily...

The article “Ocean zoning within a sparing versus sharing framework,” written by Jennifer McGowan, Michael Bode, Matthew H. Holden, Katrina Davis, Nils C. Krueck, Maria Beger, Katherine L. Yates, and Hugh P. Possingham, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal.

Energy generation sites are increasingly being implemented in coastal and offshore marine spaces, and the rate of implementation is likely to increase in coming decades. In many cases the installation of energy generation structures greatly reduces or entirely prevents other potentially damaging industries, such as fishing and mining, from operatin...

Offshore energy generation is a rapidly growing sector, competing for space in an already busy seascape. This book brings together the ecological, economic, and social implications of the spatial conflict this growth entails. Covering all energy-generation types (wind, wave, tidal, oil, and gas), it explores the direct and indirect impacts the grow...

After decades of extensive surveying, knowledge of the global distribution of species still remains inadequate for many purposes. In the short to medium term, such knowledge is unlikely to improve greatly given the often prohibitive costs of surveying and the typically limited resources available. 2.By forecasting biodiversity patterns in time and...

The land-sparing versus land-sharing debate centers around how different intensities of habitat use can be coordinated to satisfy competing demands for biodiversity persistence and food production in agricultural landscapes. We apply the broad concepts from this debate to the sea and propose it as a framework to inform marine zoning based on three...

Prioritising biodiversity conservation requires knowledge of where biodiversity occurs. Such knowledge, however, is often lacking. New technologies for collecting biological and physical data coupled with advances in modelling techniques could help address these gaps and facilitate improved management outcomes. Here we examined the utility of envir...

Supplementary materials: additional methods and results. (DOCX)

Ranges of CV Deviance and MPE for ‘best’ BRT models. (DOCX)

Descriptions of all potential predictor variables. (DOCX)

Parameters for ‘best’ BRT models. (DOCX)

Selected predictor variables. (DOCX)

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly utilised marine and coastal management tool, with rates of designation rising steeply over the last twenty years. MPAs are most commonly designated for biological conservation objectives and the management is thus focused primarily on meeting conservation goals, with associated monitoring programs g...

The planning and development of pedestrian and cycling amenities in coastal urban environments is a challenging process because a wide range of policies and considerations must be taken into account. Among these, the concepts of sustainability and more recently, resilience, have been gaining prominence. Green Infrastructure design approaches can in...

Coastal resources are an essential asset for many nations, particularly small island nations, whose dependency upon coastal resources is especially high. Antigua and Barbuda has a population of approximately 85,000, of which a high percentage either resides at or engages in business along the coast. With fishing and tourism being key economic secto...

Background/Question/Methods Unsustainable exploitation of the oceans has led to widespread degradation of marine ecosystems. In order to maintain the primary benefits humans derive from the sea, namely food supply and biodiversity that generates other ecosystem services, the ocean is divided into three general management regimes: open–access area...

As our oceans get busier, competition for space, especially in the coastal zone, will intensify. Decision makers require guidance on how to zone the ocean for multiple uses in a way that achieves both ecological and socio-economic goals. Using a freely available planning tool, we identified priority areas for seven zones, which included goals for b...

Sea level rise and climate change will have widespread impacts on coastal towns and cities, many of which have seen dramatic increases in development over recent decades. In addition to potential private property damage, the critical public infrastructure that supports these regions will become increasingly vulnerable to coastal flooding. This pape...

Incorporating the spatial access priorities of fishers into strategic conservation planning and marine protected area design: reducing cost and increasing transparency. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, doi: 10.1093/ icesjms/fsu122. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly used to address multiple marine management needs, and the incorporatio...

Both marine conservation and fisheries management are increasingly incorporating spatial tools such as marine protected areas (MPAs) and seasonal closures. To be able to develop spatial management plans that minimise negative impacts on the fishing community, whilst still fulfilling conservation needs, planners need quantitative data on which parts...

Pre-interview Information sheet. Pre-interview information sheet provided to fishers prior to participation in a survey targeting skippers and owners of commercial fishing vessels registered in Northern Ireland. After the potential participant had read the information sheet, the content was discussed to ensure understanding and obtain verbal consen...

Questionnaire. Questionnaire used to guide semi-structured interviews of skippers and owners of Northern Ireland registered commercial fishing vessels. Interviews were preceded with pre-interview information sheets. 103 interviews were conducted in total, during 2012. The responses from some of these questions were used to develop Spatial Access Pr...

Spatial planning and protected areas are playing an increasingly important role in attempts to improve marine management and accommodate conflicting needs. The fishing community is one of the biggest commercial stakeholder groups and arguably the one most likely to be adversely impacted by spatial restrictions. To enable the development of manageme...